The Trip to Otakon
by sackofsuck
Summary: NEW CHAPTER'S UP! Somehow, the Sanzo-ikkou ends up at an anime convention called Otakon and Goku gets lost! How will the others find him with so many cosplayers running around? Extreme confusion and lots of Pocky! This is my fist fic so please R&R!
1. Prologue: How it Began

The Trip to Otakon 

By Onigiri Monster

Rating: PG

Some minor language and a few painful fan smacks to the head.

Disclaimer: I don't own Saiyuki... If I did, Goku would be miiiiiine... They all belong to Kazuya Minekura, except for my original characters, which are mine.

Summary: Somehow, the Sanzo-ikkou ends up at an anime convention called Otakon and Goku gets lost! How will the others find him with so many cosplayers running around? Extreme confusion and lots of Pocky!

A/N: For those who don't know, Otakon's an anime convention. About 15,000 people were there when I went. You know you can't have an anime convention without... COSPLAYERS!! Plus with that many people there, about half of them were yaoi fans cosplaying as their favorite yaoi couples with their bf/gf ... The scary thing: accidentally witnessing them in their "tender" moments... you know what I mean? shudders This is just a short, innocent story based on one of my own experiences. grins mischievously

Just a little warning: This story might seem like a shounen-ai, but technically it's not, just to let you know... I'm not a real big fan of yaoi or shounen-ai.

Prologue: How it Began 

It was a normal day, slowly turning to night as the sun began to set in front of the Sanzo-ikkou. It was still another day's drive to the next town so they had to settle for camping in the forest that night. Gojyo and Goku were doing their normal bickering while Sanzo sat by himself staring off to the West with his "To the West" expression. Hakkai had his usual "Hakkai smile" on his face and started to set up camp. Everything was going fine as usual, but something was about to happen that no one ever expected would ever happen.

Goku suddenly stopped his argument with Gojyo and glanced towards the trees.

"Hey, baka, what are you looking around for? Food?" Gojyo joked.

Goku didn't respond. He stood up slowly and walked towards the forest, looking around at every tree and bush carefully for few minutes. Everyone watched him, slightly confused at what he was doing looking around. None of them knew that someone was watching them in the deep darkness of the forest.

Sanzo glanced over at Goku, with a note of irritation in his voice. "Oi, Bakasaru. What are you doing? It's annoying me."

He didn't respond again and kept peeking around.

"Oi, did you hear what I said?" Sanzo asked again, now with that familiar vein throbbing under his left eye.

Goku finally began to walk back to the others, occasionally glancing back towards the trees and sat down. "I sense something here... and I think it's watching us." He said, with an unusual seriousness in his voice.

Everyone became silent and looked around cautiously for any sudden movement. Tension hung in the air with increasing velocity until finally, Hakkai spoke. The tension slowly subsided around them.

"Goku's right. There's something here. We should stay on guard, just in case its youkai." He cautioned. Goku kept glancing back into the forest as Hakkai got their dinner out and smoothly changed the subject. "Come, minna-san! Lets eat now."

Goku quickly forgot about the problem that was just discussed and hopped up and down in his seat with excitement. He was gleaming with joy, as dinner was his most favorite meal out his other 17 meals everyday.

"Yes! Time to eat!"

"Heh. Look how quickly the bakasaru forgets what he was just doing when there's food set in front of him." Gojyo teased but Goku didn't hear him because he was too busy thinking about...well...food.

"Food food food food food fo—!" Goku was abruptly cut off when Sanzo's fan came crashing down on his skull, letting the sound effect echo through the forest.

"OWWW!!!!! What was that for?!!" Goku complained clutching his head, now with a painful bump forming where the fan had made direct contact.

"For being too noisy. Now shut up and eat or I'll hit you even harder." Sanzo threatened as he began to eat as well.

Gojyo snickered. "Haha. Serves him right—"

The sound of the fan hitting against another head could be heard echoing loudly through the forest as a flock of birds flew out of the trees.

Gojyo caressed the new bump forming on his head, which was noticeably larger than Goku's.

"HEY!! What the hell was THAT for?!?!? I didn't do anything!!"

"Hn. I know. I just felt like hitting you." Sanzo replied nonchalantly.

He continued to eat like nothing happened. Gojyo was fuming with anger and his face started to turn red. Goku's shoulders shook with mirth, forgetting he was just hit too while Hakkai just...smiled.

"You..." Gojyo began but stopped suddenly.

A rustling sound could be heard coming from inside the forest to his left. Everyone tensed up and stared in that direction, not even blinking. Then a figure slowly approached them, its dark Tommy Hilfiger T-shirt and blue jeans camouflaging it in the darkness of the night, making it difficult to see the figure well. Its head hung low as it stopped walking all of a sudden. The figure stood in one spot, about 10 meters from where they were. Only the sound of the campfire crackling could be heard as the four men watched it intently, each of them equally confused and suspicious of the stranger. Sanzo didn't show it, though.

Finally, after what seemed to be about a minute, the silence was broken by an evil laughter coming from the figure. It wasn't just any evil laughter, but the kind of evil laughter that only fanfic authors can have when a new idea pops up in their mischievous little minds. (Right?? I'm not sure... I know I did...). Of course, they didn't know that it was _that_ kind of evil because they didn't know that it even existed. Sanzo sensed the "I'm-Here-To-Torture-Everyone"-vibe radiating off of it and quickly drew his Smith & Wesson, clicking off the safety as he aimed the gun directly at its head.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want?" he asked threateningly, keeping it pointed at the figure as it began to walk towards them again. The other three took defensive stances, preparing for a battle.

It stopped laughing all of a sudden and slowly brought its head up to meet their gaze. Strangely enough, it was smiling at them.

"Hey! That's just a girl." Gojyo said and lowered his defense a bit. Hakkai and Goku took a closer look and, to their surprise, it was. She was about the age of 14, with dark hair down to her shoulders. (This isn't turning into a Mary Sue, I swear.) Hakkai and Goku lowered their defenses too, but Sanzo didn't move a muscle. He threw one of his famous Death Glares at the girl, causing her to briefly melt into a puddle of drool. She quickly restored herself back to normal and continued to smile.

"I don't care who you are." Sanzo growled, starting to get annoyed. "You still didn't answer my question."

There was silence again. A very long and uneasy silence that would've gave Goku enough time to gobble up 100 meat buns.

Finally, she spoke with and evil grin crossed on her face.

"Beware... the cosplayers..." she trailed off into evil laughter again.

Everyone's expression changed from suspicion to extreme confusion so fast you would've missed it if you blinked.

"What--?" They all started to say in unison, but were cut off in mid-sentence when all four men suddenly disappeared.

The Fanfic Author's laugh echoed through the empty forest as she, too disappeared with a snap of her fingers.

TBC

So... how was it??? O.O;; This is my first fic so it's probably not best thing you've ever read... I'll try my best to make it fairly good. The next chapter will be up sometime before September 7 because that's when school starts for me... bleh. Reviews would be much appreciated!! Thank you!!


	2. What's Pocky?

**The Trip to Otakon**  
By Onigiri Monster 

Disclaimer: I don't own Saiyuki. I'm just one of the other 5248274992437 people who want it. Only my boring original characters belong to me... (They'll show up...sometime)

Rating: PG

**Warning:** Extreme pocky highness lies ahead.

A/N: Oh, I forgot to tell you all in the last chapter that they're in their Reload outfits, ok?

Thanks to all of the people who reviewed!

'_Italics_' = represents thoughts

**Chapter 1:  
****What's Pocky?**

Crowds of people could be seen around at every corner of the Baltimore Convention Center (BCC) as all of their mumbled voices could be heard echoing off the walls. People from all sorts of different states and even some individuals from Japan were visiting the 3-day convention. Out of the hordes of the mostly cosplaying people, one lone figure could barely be made out of the crowds only by his very familiar chocolate-brown hair.

Goku had suddenly appeared out of nowhere into this strange place only moments ago. It wasn't dark outside like the place where they were about to camp out at. The sun was out and shining brightly. Goku didn't know that they weren't in China traveling west anymore but halfway across the world, in the United States! Maybe they went a little _too_ far west...

Completely clueless about where he was and what just happened seconds before, he began to wander around aimlessly, hopefully, trying to find anything he recognized.

Then it hit him.

Where were the others?

Panic stricken, he searched the area frantically and even started to run a bit, slightly becoming short of breath. Everywhere he went he saw more groups of people, most of them dressed in strange clothes that he'd never seen before. The place was huge! After a few more minutes of anxious searching, he finally admitted defeat and stopped to catch his breath.

Goku sighed heavily and slumped down against a wall. '_Man, I can't find them in this huge place like this...' _he thought to himself_. 'Maybe I'll walk around and explore a little while I look for them. Yeah. And then, we can go eat!!' _With that thought, his stomach grumbled loudly. Goku looked around to see if anyone heard it, but luckily no one did. He sighed in relief.

'_Phew, no one heard. Hm...this area doesn't seem to be dangerous. I don't sense anything threatening; everyone here is human.' _Goku scanned the area, watching the people walk around but spotted a few cosplayers

'_Well, I'm not so sure about some of the others with the weird clothes on... Well I guess I should get going now.'_

Goku got up slowly and fixed his clothes a bit. He took a deep breath and began his curious excavation.

He saw a lot more people in the funny looking costumes than he expected that there would be. He also saw some people carrying paddle-looking things that had strange a word written on it. It looked a lot like the word "Yaoi" but of course Goku, being the innocent little one, didn't know what it meant. (Or did he??) All of them also had something around their necks, like a membership or something. Goku also realized that he had one on too, not knowing how it got there in the first place. He looked at the little picture on it.

"Full Metal Alchemist...? What's that?"

A long silence filled the air as Goku pondered about why the picture had anything to do with metal things. (Well, of course it wasn't _really_ silent because he was inside of a huge convention after all, but who cares? ... Right...back to the story.)

He eventually grew bored of the subject and tossed the idea aside, continuing his mini adventure.

Almost everywhere he went, there were ninja people with cool looking headbands [1], girls in different colored sailor uniforms [2], and some real tall guys in long red trench coats [3]. There particularly seemed to be lots of people in red costumes with funny doggy looking ears and white hair, most of them carrying around a huge sword about 6 feet long [4]. What caught Goku's attention was someone's extremely long hair whipping his face. He glanced over in the person's direction to see the back of a girl. She was wearing a complicated looking dress and had funky pink and white ear thingies on her head [5].

"Wow, how can she stand having so much hair like that?" Goku asked himself. Her hair was a blond color and was only about six inches above the floor. "And I complain to Gojyo that _he_ has too much hair!"

Goku wondered about the question and, because of his curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to go ask the person about it.

As Goku approached the girl from behind, she suddenly turned around, only to make Goku stop and stare at HIM. The cross dresser walked past Goku as he just stood there, surprised. [6]

You could almost see a sweat drop forming on the back of Goku's head as he shuddered slightly at the odd sight. He tried not to think about what he just saw and continued walking straight ahead, puzzled.

'_Who are these people??'_ Goku thought to himself. '_They're all dressed so funny. I'm glad I'm wearing normal clothes!_'

He examined his own outfit but realized that they didn't seem so "normal" either.

'_Hey... What are these spiky armor things on my shoulders for?? I've always had them but I never knew why..._'

Goku thought hard. Real hard. He stood in the middle of the hallway with a -"I-Will-Figure-It-Out-Eventually"- expression engraved on his face. Passing people just stared at the pre-occupied monkey, wondering what exactly he was doing. After a long moment of thinking, nothing came up in his mind and continued walking, quickly forgetting about the subject.

'_Maybe I shouldn't think so hard anymore. Now my head hurts..._' he gently rubbed his temples while he walked.

He eventually passed a bunch of people lined up against a wall holding various signs, most of them saying either: "Hug me", "Glomp me", or "Will do ::insert something weird here:: for pocky."

Goku wondered about the last person's sign. '_What's a pocky? Is it another kind of meat bun? Whatever it is, it sure sounds yummy.'_

Since he was on the subject of food again, his stomach made a low grumble sound. It echoed so loudly through the hall that this time, EVERYONE around him heard it. It even made some people jump. Everyone who heard it looked around confused, trying to find where the strange sound came from. Goku's face flushed with embarrassment and he quickly ran out of the area before anyone suspected that it came from his own stomach.

After he ran a safe distance from the area, he sighed heavily and plopped down on the floor. '_Gosh, I'm so hungry...'_

Goku just sat there, lacking the energy to walk around anymore.

'_I wonder what the others are doing right now...'_

Elsewhere...  
  
= = = =

Sanzo, Hakkai, and Gojyo suddenly appeared in front of the only Starbucks Coffee in the convention, each of them still in a defensive stance. The same membership badge that Goku found on himself also appeared around each of their necks. Realizing that they were in a different place, all of them dropped their guard. Everyone looked around the strange place, slightly bewildered.

"Whoa. Where the heck are we?" Gojyo asked in extreme confusion. He then found the badge hanging around his neck and examined it. Hakkai and Sanzo looked at theirs as well.

"Hmm... it says 'Otakon 2004' on it." Hakkai said, checking both sides of the badge. "I guess this is where we're at right now." He gave a smile.

"Yeah, but I mean like, what _country_ are we—" Gojyo stopped for a moment. "Wait... where's the bakasaru?" He changed the subject and look around the place.

Hakkai, also realizing that he was missing, scanned the area for our favorite little monkey. Sanzo didn't really care and went off somewhere to be alone like he usually does.

"Oh my... it seems as though we've lost him on the way here." Hakkai concluded. "We should go find him."

"Yeah, sure." Gojyo kicked a piece of paper. "Hey Hakkai, what did that weird girl mean by 'beware the cosplayers'?"

Hakkai thought for a moment. "'Cosplayers.' I think I've heard that term somewhere before. I'm not exactly sure what it is but I think it has something to do with wearing costumes."

"I think you're right about that, Hakkai." Gojyo said. He pointed to the crowds of people wearing costumes. There were some of the same costumes that Goku saw along with a couple of different ones. One person walked by them wearing a huge red box that had the word "Pocky" written across it. There were smaller versions of the red box sticking on him, along with a small crown on his head and a staff in his hand. Following the strange red box man were five other people saying something that sounded a lot like this:

"PLEASE GIVE US SOME OF YOUR MAGICAL POCKY, GREAT POCKY KING!!"

They bowed down to the "King" and chanted the word "Pocky" about 50 times. The "Pocky King" started to get annoyed and took off one of the smaller boxes, tossing it onto the floor in front of them. All five people screamed and dove for the lone box of Pocky like a pack of hungry wolves. Hakkai watched them, very interested in their strange behavior. One person quickly grabbed the box and ran away from the other four, laughing hysterically as the others chased him down the hall in protest. The Pocky King quickly scuttled off somewhere to hide from other pocky addicts.

Everyone who witnessed the scene stood in silence. They all stared in the direction of the pocky addicted people for a few seconds after they had disappeared from their field of vision before returning to their conversations. Hakkai laughed in amusement while Gojyo just stood there, staring.  
  
"..."

"Hehe..."

"What...the...heck...was...that??" Gojyo asked slowly, eyes wider than normal.

"I have no idea, but it was quite amusing." Hakkai smiled. He looked around to find that someone else was also missing.

"Oh, where did Sanzo go?"

Gojyo looked back at Starbucks Coffee and there sitting at a table, was Sanzo, reading the paper with his cigarette in his mouth and a fresh cup of coffee at his side. People weren't allowed to smoke in the BCC but of course Sanzo, as he always had, never cared about it.

Gojyo temporarily changed into one of those Super Deformed people along with that weird facial expression, just like this guys'. ( - -;;)

'_Oh, right. What else would I expect from that priest?'_ he rolled his eyes.

Hakkai slowly walked over to the blonde.

"Sanzo."

"What?" he replied without looking away from his paper.

"Gojyo and I are going to look for Goku. We'll be back later." Hakkai said, with his cheery smile.

"Ch. I don't care." he continued to read his paper and took a sip of his coffee.

"Let's go, Gojyo." Hakkai said while walking back towards him.

"Sure. Let the old man sit on his lazy ass all day." Gojyo chuckled, but quickly regretted it.

Sanzo clicked off the safety on his S&W and held it against the back of Gojyo's head. Even though he felt the direct hit of Sanzo's famous Death Glare from behind, he still froze in his movement.

"You want to try saying that again?" Sanzo asked dangerously. The world seemed to disappear into an eerie darkness around them as Sanzo's flaming aura engulfed them both. Hakkai just watched them as the whole area slowly became dark as well. People just stopped and looked around, confused about the darkening area. To DBZ fans, it felt and looked like one of the scenes where they summoned the Eternal Dragon, Shenron.

Gojyo couldn't move or make any sound at all for the longest moment of his life. That was how powerful Sanzo's Death Glare was!

Finally, Gojyo shook from his paralysis and replied nervously.

"Ah, N-no. I'm fine. Uhhh, c'mon Hakkai. The sooner we find Goku, the better!" Gojyo grabbed Hakkai's arm and quickly left the agitated monk before he could give any response. Sanzo watched him flee and disappear around a corner, dragging Hakkai behind.

"Ch. Idiot."

Gojyo felt the aura disappear from around him as the world became bright once again.

"Man, that was close! How the heck does he do that?!!? That freaky glare thing... I'm so relived _that's_ over. I really thought I was gonna DIE." Gojyo sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Heh. I guess you're pretty lucky." Hakkai smiled. He then spotted an Otakon 2004 Pocket Program Guide on he floor. He picked it up, looking inside. Gojyo looked over his shoulder, and both studied the mini map.

"If only I knew what floor we're on." Hakkai said scanning the hall for anything that matched the map.

He heard a sudden noise come from the room behind and turned around. He read the sign in front of the door, which said "LARP"[7]. Not really caring about what was going on inside the room, he looked back at the map. There it was, the LARP room on floor 300. (They don't really have 300 floors at the BCC. I mean, really. You really think the place would be _that_ big? I have no idea why they put it in the hundreds anyways. They really only have four floors...)

"Here we are." Hakkai pointed to the room on the third floor. "Let's check the rest of this floor and then go down to the second floor if we don't find him."

"Whatever you say. You're the smart one." Gojyo said and made their way down the other hall. As soon as they passed the room, a group of three Saiyuki cosplayers exited the LARP room.

"Come on! We have to find Dan." A blonde girl said.

"Didn't he say he would meet us on the second floor, by the stairs to the dealers room?" another girl asked.

"Oh yeah. Well, let's go then!" the blonde girl said and the other two followed her down the stairs.  
  
= = = =

Sanzo was still at Starbucks, reading his paper and smoking. It was much quieter without the other three. He took a sip from his coffee and turned the page in his paper.  
  
"..."

"Hn. Bakasaru."  
  
= = = =

Goku was exploring the dealer's room, running on the energy of 73 boxes of pocky that he found hidden in a closet. He twitched a few times because of all the sugar running through his body. Browsing at the stuff at an imported manga booth, he spotted a manga called "Saiyuki Reload" with Sanzo, Gojyo, Hakkai, and himself on the cover. He picked it up and began to open it, wanting to find out why they were on the cover, when he suddenly appeared next to the Funimation booth. Confused, he turned towards the exit and began skipping, but stopped when he felt something on his head. He took it off and looked at the funny looking orange hat. It had a cat's face and ears sticking out of the top. Since Goku was extremely pocky high at the moment, he started laughing hysterically.

"AhhaHHAhahAH!!! It's OoooooorangE!!!!!!"

He pulled it back on his head and hopped out of the room.

What really happened was that the Fanfic Author saw him pick up the manga volume in her magical mirror. Having powers like God, because she was the Fanfic Author and controlled everything in this fic, she stopped time. She couldn't let him read spoilers, now could she? Of course, not! She moved him away next to the stupid Funimation booth where they were selling those cute Fruits basket hat thingies. With time still frozen, she grabbed a Kyou hat and put it on his head just for the fun of it. She disappeared again, returning time back to normal speed.

Goku practically bounced off the walls and hopped out of the room to the other side of the hall. The energy he got from the pocky made him so hyper that he would start to twitch if he stopped moving. Goku ran around the room in circles for the next five minutes before the short boost of energy quickly diminished. Exhausted and hungry again, he slumped against a wall and just sat there, daydreaming about food. Over at the staircase leading to the third floor were the three Saiyuki cosplayers, making their way down to the second floor.

===  
TBC  
===

[1] - Naruto  
[2] - Sailormoon  
[3] - Vash from Trigun  
[4] - Inuyasha  
[5] - Chii from Chobits  
[6] - It's true; most of the Chii's were cross dressers!  
[7] - Live Action Role Play. That's where people dress and act their favorite anime character in a tournament to see whose interpretation of their favorite character is best.

A/N: Another chapter finished! YAY! I hope it was enjoyable enough to read. I know I didn't put Sanzo in a lot but he'll show up more in the next chapter! The ending was boring and maybe kinda stupid... but that's because I'm tired right now and don't really feel like thinking too much. And just to let you know, it might take longer for the next chapter to be posted. I have to start getting ready for school and a lot of things are coming up for me in the next few weeks. But don't forget me! Please review! Your comments inspire me to continue and make me very happy! You can even give a few suggestions on what I could insert into the fic as well. (Mainly because I'm changing my plot so much as I go along that I'm sort of in a mess... it's already becoming a lot longer than I expected...) Thank you!


End file.
